An independent review is to be conducted into the crash of an RAF Chinook on
the Mull of Kintyre which killed 25 senior intelligence officers and the
aircraft crew, the government has announced.

Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, said a "respected lawyer" would lead the inquiry into the 1994 accident which killed everyone on board.

Two RAF pilots were found guilty of "gross negligence" for flying fast through thick fog, but there have been on-going concerns about the airworthiness of the helicopter.

During Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Clegg said: "I am pleased to be able to confirm today that we will be holding an independent review of the evidence on the Mull of Kintyre disaster and I hope the review will be welcomed by the families of those who died in this tragic accident.

"To ensure its complete independence, the review will be conducted by a respected lawyer who is independent of the Government and who has not previously expressed a view on the disaster.

"The reviewer and the precise terms of reference will be announced soon."

The review is expected to be conducted in private by a retired Scottish judge, Lord Philip, and to take three to four months.

The Chinook Mark 2 helicopter crashed on June 2 1994 on the way from Belfast to Inverness in the worst RAF helicopter accident in peacetime.

The aircraft was largely destroyed, killing the special forces crew and 25 senior intelligence figures from the Army, police, and MI5.

Flt Lt Jonathan Tapper, 30, from Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, and Flt Lt Richard Cook, 28, from Church Crookham, Hants, were initially cleared of blame by an RAF board of inquiry.

It ruled it was impossible to establish the exact cause of the crash and a fatal accident inquiry reached the same conclusion.

But an official RAF inquiry into the incident concluded the aircraft was airworthy and found the pilots guilty of gross negligence for flying too fast and too low in thick fog.

Three subsequent investigations have found the cause of the crash was inconclusive and concerns have been raised over the helicopter’s electronic flight systems.

A leaked document from the Ministry of Defence aircraft testing centre, written nine months before the crash, suggested there were serious concerns that computer software on board was "positively dangerous'' and its "deficiencies'' could cause the pilots to lose control.

Another document, obtained by The Daily Telegraph last year, showed that those in charge of RAF helicopter safety warned that the upgraded HC2 model was not fit for service and that flying operations should "cease immediately''.

In the report, written on the day of the crash, the commanding officer of the Rotary Wing Test Squadron (RWTS) recommended in the "strongest possible terms'' that the Air Force should "cease Chinook HC2 operations'' until mechanical problems over flight systems had been addressed.

The safety report said that without an overhaul of the Chinooks, the RWTS would be "failing in its primary role of providing the front line with equipment which can not only efficiently carry out the task but do this safely''.

It said suggested improvements had been "ignored'' and until there was "clear, unequivocal and realistic explanation of the faults'' further Chinook HC2 flying "shall not be authorised''.

The original investigation was hampered by the fact that 80 per cent of the aircraft was destroyed and there was no flight data recorder and no cockpit voice recorder.